Nominations are being sought for the 2008 Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize.
The prize is awarded for the best contribution to the science of pricing and revenue management published in English.
Published work must meet the following requirements to be eligible for the prize:
- It must be in the form of a paper, a book, or a group of papers or books.
- It must be on the topic of pricing/revenue management.
- It must have been published in the past five years: 2003-2007. In the case of a group, at least one member of the group must have been published in one of those years.
- It must be written in the English language.
- It must have appeared in the open literature.
Books or papers may be case histories, reports of research representing new results, or primarily synthesis. For any nominated set
(group of either articles or books) published over more than one year, it is expected that each element in the set is part of one
continuous effort, such as a multi-year project or a continuously written, multi-volume book.
The prize committee will use the following criteria in making judgments:
- The extent to which the contribution advances the state of the art of pricing and revenue management.
- The originality of the ideas or methods.
- The new areas of application it opens up.
- The degree to which existing theory or methods are unified or simplified.
- The clarity and excellence of the exposition.
- The degree to which the contribution provides value for future applications, or enables improved practice.
A nomination consists of:
- A nominating letter specifying the work being nominated and explaining why it is deserving of the prize. Nominating letters must include the titles of the paper(s) or book(s), author(s), and the place and date of publication.
- Supporting letters, if desired. Supporting statements bearing on the worth of the publication in terms of the six criteria above will be very helpful, but are not required.
- Six copies of the work. In case of journal articles, it is sufficient to submit a pdf file containing the paper.
Nominations should be sent to the chair of the committee at the address below, or in the case of electronic submission, emailed to
billcoop@me.umn.edu. The submission deadline is September 1, 2008.
The prize committee consists of:
E. Andrew Boyd, PROS
Rene Caldentey, NYU
William L. Cooper, University of Minnesota (Chair)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
111 Church Street, S. E.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
July 2008
In this issue:
- Message from the Chair
- INFORMS Annual Conference Boasts over 140 Revenue Management and Pricing Talks
- Call for Nominations for the 2008 Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize
- Call for Nominations for Section Officer and Board Positions
- Section Constitution Brought Up-To-Date
- Canadian Operational Research Society Seeks Pricing Cluster Chair
- Reduced Fee Subscriptions to the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Corporate Sponsorships
Message from the Chair
“Excuse me, how do you define supermodularity?”
The man sitting next to me looked puzzled. We had been watching a series of presentations on revenue management and game theory
at the INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Conference in Montreal. I glanced at his name badge and saw that he was a revenue
management analyst for a mid-sized airline. I soon learned that he had some background in probability and statistics, but not game
theory. During the conversation that followed, I learned that he had been sent to the conference by his managers, to “See if there
were any new developments that we really should know about.”
Our section’s mission statement includes the responsibility “To encourage the exchange of information among practitioners, users,
and researchers in the area of revenue management and pricing.” I found that the audiences for the talks at the summer conference
included an excellent mix of practitioners and researchers. As a section, however, we must make sure that useful information is
flowing, and that it is flowing in both directions.
First, the good news. The Section membership rolls shows that a full 60% of our members are practitioners, compared with 40% for
INFORMS as a whole. Given the wide prevalence and importance of revenue management techniques in industry, I believe that our section
has an appropriate balance in membership between the two groups.
The presentations at conferences, however, have not been so balanced. The very first summer Section conference in 2001 had 21
technical presentations, of which 7 were based on work completed in industry, primarily by industry researchers or practitioners.
The following graph shows what has happened since then: a steady increase in the total number of presentations, while the number of
presentations by practitioners has remained flat.
I believe that active practitioner participation at conferences is vital for the health of our section. For practitioners, making a
presentation offers the opportunity to receive feedback and advice from the wider revenue management and pricing community. It also
allows academics another avenue (besides consulting and personal contacts) to examine problems faced in industry.
To encourage more participation by practitioners, our section will be offering a Practice Innovation Prize for successful and
innovative applications of revenue management and pricing techniques by Section members. The prize-winners will be selected based on
their originality and impact. More details about the prize, such as the application process and selection criteria, will be coming soon.
If you are interested in the prize -- either as an applicant or perhaps to serve as a judge – please let me know.
By emphasizing practitioner presentations, I do not mean to downplay the value of presentations by academic researchers. In fact, our
section has a proud history of “cross-border innovation,” in which new ideas move quickly between academia and industry, and back again.
Good examples can be found by tracing the development of an important recent innovation: the use of choice models to more accurately
describe customer behavior. First, users and practitioners in the airline industry began to recognize that customers’ choices often did
not fit standard revenue management models, and this lack of fit would sometimes cause the optimization models themselves to go haywire.
While researchers in industry were making quick, practical adjustments to their software, academics were trying to understand the causes
of this phenomenon and to design reliable methods for dealing with it. The results include two papers that have won the Section prize
for research:
“Revenue Management under a general discrete choice model of consumer behavior”
by Talluri and van Ryzin (2004), and
“Models of the Spiral-Down Effect in Revenue Management”
by Cooper, Homem-de-Mello, and Kleywegt (2006). The ideas presented in these papers then flowed back to industry, creating awareness of this issue,
and as a result the proposed methods are now being encoded in software for airlines, railroads, and hotels.
In “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” a treatise on the evolution of human civilization, Jared Diamond examines the spread of technologies such
as metallurgy and writing among societies. Diamond emphasizes that societies with significant barriers to the diffusion of new ideas
suffer over the long run. Whether these barriers are due to geography, climate, or culture, these societies abandon useful technologies
and do not acquire new ones. Eventually they die out by themselves or are overrun by societies with superior technology. Societies that
freely exchange technological ideas with others, on the other hand, are consistently more successful. Diamond’s analysis has implications
for our own Section. What are our barriers to idea diffusion, and how can we tear them down?
And that initial question about supermodularity? I responded to the analyst, “If there is supermodularity between two groups of people,
then when one group puts in more effort, it can help the other group.” I should have added, “Sort of like practitioners and academics.”
Sincerely,
Rob Shumsky
Section Chair
robert.shumsky@dartmouth.edu
INFORMS Annual Conference Boasts Over 140 Revenue Management and Pricing Talks
The INFORMS Annual Conference will be held October 12-15 at the Marriott Wardman Park and the Omni Shoreham in Washington D.C.
Located a short metro ride from major attractions, the general reception will be held at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
The revenue management and pricing sessions, organized by cluster co-chairs Gustavo Vulcano (gvulcano@stern.nyu.edu) and Victor Araman
(varaman@stern.nyu.edu), promise something for everyone. For more information, see the INFORMS conference web site,
http://meetings.informs.org/DC08/.
Call for Nominations for the 2008 Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize
Nominations are being sought for the 2008 Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize.
The prize is awarded for the best contribution to the science of pricing and revenue management published in English.
Published work must meet the following requirements to be eligible for the prize:
- It must be in the form of a paper, a book, or a group of papers or books.
- It must be on the topic of pricing/revenue management.
- It must have been published in the past five years: 2003-2007. In the case of a group, at least one member of the group must have been published in one of those years.
- It must be written in the English language.
- It must have appeared in the open literature.
Books or papers may be case histories, reports of research representing new results, or primarily synthesis. For any nominated set
(group of either articles or books) published over more than one year, it is expected that each element in the set is part of one
continuous effort, such as a multi-year project or a continuously written, multi-volume book.
The prize committee will use the following criteria in making judgments:
- The extent to which the contribution advances the state of the art of pricing and revenue management.
- The originality of the ideas or methods.
- The new areas of application it opens up.
- The degree to which existing theory or methods are unified or simplified.
- The clarity and excellence of the exposition.
- The degree to which the contribution provides value for future applications, or enables improved practice.
A nomination consists of:
- A nominating letter specifying the work being nominated and explaining why it is deserving of the prize. Nominating letters must include the titles of the paper(s) or book(s), author(s), and the place and date of publication.
- Supporting letters, if desired. Supporting statements bearing on the worth of the publication in terms of the six criteria above will be very helpful, but are not required.
- Six copies of the work. In case of journal articles, it is sufficient to submit a pdf file containing the paper.
Nominations should be sent to the chair of the committee at the address below, or in the case of electronic submission, emailed to
billcoop@me.umn.edu. The submission deadline is September 1, 2008.
The prize committee consists of:
E. Andrew Boyd, PROS
Rene Caldentey, NYU
William L. Cooper, University of Minnesota (Chair)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
111 Church Street, S. E.
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Call for Nominations for Section Officer and Board Positions
Nominations are now being sought for Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, and one open board position.
The Vice Chair/Chair Elect will serve three years, one as Vice Chair, one as Chair, and one as a board member.
The Secretary/Treasurer will serve a term of one year. The board member will serve a term of two consecutive years.
Duties will commence at the 2008 INFORMS Annual Meeting, and the elected individuals must be members of INFORMS and the RM&P
Section at that time. Nominations are being accepted now through August 15, 2008. To submit a nomination, contact one of the
nomination committee members, Costis Maglaras at c.maglaras@gsb.columbia.edu
or John Quillinan at John.Quillinan@disney.com.
Section Constitution Brought Up-To-Date
The Revenue Management and Pricing Section Constitution describes the purpose of the Section, the structure of its management
and board, its schedule of meetings, and numerous other administrative details. The officers and board determined that many of
the provisions are out-of-date, and this fall they will be proposing changes aimed at bringing it up-to-date. Following the
guidelines of the Constitution itself, the following procedure will be used to consider these changes: (i) the amended version
of the Constitution will be sent to all members via the listserve at least 3 weeks before the INFORMS Annual Meeting in October,
(ii) the changes will be discussed during the Section business meeting at the INFORMS Annual Meeting, and (iii) a vote will be
administered by email on the changes within two months after the meeting. Section members are encouraged to provide comments on
the revised Constitution and to vote.
Canadian Operational Research Society Seeks Pricing Cluster Chair
CORS, the Canadian Operational Research Society, is seeking a cluster chair to organize sessions on revenue management and pricing
for the CORS annual meeting July 14-17, 2009, in Toronto. Interested individuals should contact Rob Shumsky at
robert.shumsky@dartmouth.edu.
Reduced Fee Subscriptions to the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management carries timely, relevant articles drawn from both industry applications and
academic research. Members of the RM&P Section are entitled to significantly reduced subscription rates – an individual annual
rate of $98 rather than the standard $216. The Journal’s publisher has recently streamlined the process for receiving the reduced
rate. To receive the reduced rate, download and mail the
subscription form available at
www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/RPM_O-F_Update_2008.pdf.
To learn more about the journal, visit www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier organization
for quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact John Quillinan at
John.Quillinan@disney.com.
Questions or comments may be directed to the newsletter editor, Andy Boyd at e.a.boyd@earthlink.net.
The Aviation Applications Section of INFORMS awards a prize for the best dissertation in any area related to aviation OR
(air traffic management OR and airline OR). The winner will receive a plaque and an honorarium of five hundred dollars. Finalists
will receive an honorable mention and a certificate. Doctoral dissertations meeting the following criteria are eligible for consideration:
- The dissertation must be completed and submitted after June 1 of the previous year and before May 31 of the current year
- The dissertation must be in an area relevant to aviation research or practice
Application Process
Submit the following documents in portable document format (PDF) via email to the Secretary of AAS, Greg Coldren
(gregorycoldren@yahoo.com), before midnight on July 15:
- the completed dissertation;
- an extended abstract (4 to 5 pages) describing the work and its relevance;
- a letter of nomination from the dissertation supervisor supporting the submission and highlighting the importance of the research;
- a short paper (20 to 25 pages, double spaced) that is based on the dissertation (if such a paper is available).
Committee Chair:
- Francois Soumis, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal
Other Committee Members:
- Diego Klabjan, Northwestern University
- Mirela Stojkovic, Northwest Airlines
- David Ryan, University of Auckland
For more details, please visit the AAS website at
www.informs.org/index.php?c=528&kat=AA%3A+Dissertation+Prize
Stefan Karisch
Chair, Aviation Applications Section of INFORMS
April 2008
In this issue:
- Message from the Chair
- 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Conference in Montreal
- Reduced Fee Subscriptions to the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Call for Abstracts for INFORMS Annual Conference
- Call for Nominations for Section Officer and Board Positions
- 4th Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference in Atlanta
- Corporate Sponsorships
Message from the Chair
Earlier this month Professor Sherri Kimes, of Cornell University and the Cornell-Nanyang Institute of Hospitality Management in Singapore,
solicited responses from our listserv for a survey on the future of Revenue Management. It’s not too late to respond – just follow the link,
http://surveys.cit.cornell.edu/.
Professor Kimes plans to analyze the responses and publish
the results, but she has made the preliminary data available to anyone who participates in the survey (contact Professor Kimes at
sek6@cornell.edu). Here I will describe what I learned from reading the survey results. I recommend that you fill out the survey
before reading the rest of this message, so that the following comments do not bias you.
There are currently over 200 written responses to each open-ended question, and they make for fascinating reading. The respondents are
heavily weighted towards industry – only 5 percent of respondents are in academia (which is itself interesting, for approximately 40 percent
of the members of our Section are in academia). The responses thus far are primarily from the Hotel/Hospitality industry (71 percent).
Answers to the question, “What do you see as the major trends in Revenue Management?” can be grouped into three rough categories: (i)
improvements to existing applications, (ii) extending the scope of RM in existing industries and (iii) application to entirely new industries.
Examples of (i) include the incorporation of discrete choice models of customer behavior into optimization systems and the improvement of
dynamic pricing algorithms. Responses in category (ii) often describe extensions of RM systems to consider profits across the entire
organization; e.g., when making booking decisions for a resort, the RM system should consider revenues and costs from all parts of the
facility, not just revenues generated by rooms. New industries mentioned under category (iii) include media, advertising, conferences,
financial markets, spas, catering, movie theatres, sports events, web advertising, and parking facilities. In fact, many of these
industries practice some form of revenue management (although that term may not be used within the particular industry), but 38 percent
of respondents felt that extensions to other industries “need major improvements.”
The comments also highlighted the many challenges facing revenue management practitioners. These include difficulties recruiting and
retaining good people for revenue management positions, a lack of understanding and acceptance of revenue management techniques by managers,
and turf wars among RM departments and related functions. One comment described “directors of catering who may see pricing as their realm
but are reluctant to raise price because ‘this is what we always charged.’” This particular comment also highlights another theme that is
threaded throughout the survey responses – that revenue managers must be aware of the human element, both the effects of RM decisions on
customers (thus the need for a more sophisticated understanding of customer satisfaction) as well as the effects of RM policies on the
firm as a whole.
Overall, the respondents see an increasing role for RM throughout the organization. One comment puts it this way: “Revenue management
will become much more mainstream and will be integrated in all decision making.” Some see revenue management being “commoditized” –
imbedded in software that is executed automatically and used widely. Many others, however, believe that substantial human input in both
the design and execution of RM systems will always be necessary. Whatever the case, the survey results imply a bright future for revenue
management.
I would like to sincerely thank Professor Kimes for creating and administering the survey and for making the results available.
Sincerely,
Rob Shumsky
Section Chair
8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Conference in Montreal
The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference will be held in Montreal, June 18-20, following the Montreal
Formula 1 Grand Prix and preceding Québec's national holiday. In keeping with its distinguished history, the conference will offer a
variety of presentations representing the forefront of theory and practice. The presentations will cover all aspects of the field,
ranging from the theoretical and conceptual to real-life applications. Information concerning registration, accommodations, and the meeting
schedule are available at https://symposia.cirrelt.ca/Informs-RMP2008/en/. For further information concerning the conference, contact
either of the co-organizers Patrice Marcotte or Gilles Savard at rmp2008@cirrelt.ca.
Reduced Fee Subscriptions to the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management carries timely, relevant articles drawn from both industry applications and academic
research. Members of the RM&P Section are entitled to significantly reduced subscription rates – an individual annual rate of $98
rather than the standard $216. The Journal’s publisher has recently streamlined the process for receiving the reduced rate.
To receive the reduced rate, download and mail the subscription form (PDF).
To learn more about the journal, visit www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
Call for Abstracts for INFORMS Annual Conference
There is still time to participate in the Revenue Management and Pricing Section cluster of sponsored presentations at the INFORMS
Annual Meeting this November in Washington DC, but you need to hurry! Contact cluster organizer Victor Araman
(varaman@stern.nyu.edu)
or Gustavo Vulcano (gvulcano@stern.nyu.edu) for more information by May 8.
Call for Nominations for Section Officer and Board Positions
Nominations are now being sought for Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, and one open board position. The Vice Chair/Chair
Elect will serve three years, one as Vice Chair, one as Chair, and one as a board member. The Secretary/Treasurer will serve a term
of one year. The board member will serve a term of two consecutive years. Duties will commence at the 2008 INFORMS Annual Meeting,
and the elected individuals must be members of INFORMS and the RM&P Section at that time. Nominations are being accepted now through
August 1, 2008. To submit a nomination, contact one of the nomination committee members, Costis Maglaras at
c.maglaras@gsb.columbia.edu or John Quillinan at John.Quillinan@disney.com.
4th Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference in Atlanta
Georgia Tech and Revenue Analytics will host the Fourth Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference. This year's
conference, Staying Ahead of the Curve, will take place November 11 - 12 in Midtown Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.
The Revenue Management and Price Optimization conference provides a unique opportunity for business leaders, researchers and
service providers to exchange ideas about the latest developments in Revenue Management business practice and technology. The carefully
constructed agenda features three keynote addresses, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and numerous networking opportunities,
as well as a full day of educational workshops.
For more information, visit www.revenuemanagementconference.com.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier organization for
quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact John Quillinan at
John.Quillinan@disney.com.
January 2008
In this issue:
- Message from the Chair
- Membership Renewal
- The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference in Montreal
- Prizes Awarded, and a Request for Information on a Recipient
- Proposals Solicited for the 2009 Summer Conference
- Job and Internship Listings
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
This year will be an exciting year for our Section. In the summer we will be gathering in Montreal for our annual conference,
which will have a terrific program. As in previous years, the conference will feature informative talks by both practitioners
and academics. This year our keynote speakers will be Patrick Michelin, director of the "Grandes Lignes" division of the French
Railway, and Marcel Boyer, Bell Professor of Industrial Economics
(www.cirano.qc.ca/cv.php?lang=en&coderelation=1107)
at the University of Montreal, as well as VP and Chief Economist of the Montreal Economic Institute
(www.iedm.org/main/main_en.php).
Please see the announcement, below, for more information about the conference.
In general, one of the strengths of our Section is its strong representation of both practitioners and academics. To take full
advantage of this mix, however, there must be cross-fertilization between the two groups. Conferences like this summer’s
gathering in Montreal provide one way to encourage communication, but there are others: academics participating in consulting
projects and writing cases, practitioners visiting classrooms to discuss real-world revenue management and pricing applications,
and summer internships by PhD students in industry. I believe that this last method is particularly important,
and I strongly encourage our members from industry to create internships and advertise them on our web site, where there is now
a special section devoted to internships
(see, http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/jobs.html).
Internship listings should be sent directly to me, at robert.shumsky@dartmouth.edu.
Internships can create real value for both academics and practitioners. The firms that hire interns have the opportunity to work
with well-trained students with a fresh perspective, and they gain access to the latest research ideas. Professors who place their
students in internships have increased contact with industry and a clearer view of the challenges faced by firms with real-world
pricing and revenue management problems. For graduate students, internships offer the chance to see the complexity of
industrial-strength problems and the challenges of implementation. For students there are also placement benefits: business
schools and engineering departments often look for industrial, as well as academic, experience when hiring faculty.
My belief in the value of internships follows from my own experience. During graduate school my advisors were wise enough to place
me in an internship at Boston’s Logan Airport, where I was asked to develop runway and terminal capacity planning models.
Not only did this allow me to put my academic knowledge to use, it also exposed me to financial and political issues that certainly
did not come up in school (adding a runway to Logan will certainly increase capacity in theory, but it is not so easy to do in practice).
Again, I strongly encourage our practitioners to create internship opportunities that focus on revenue management and pricing
applications, and then post them on our web site so that we can get the word out.
Finally, I would like to congratulate our newly elected officers: Costis Maglaras (Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect), John Quillinan
(Secretary/Treasurer), and Itir Karaesmen (Board Member). Soulaymane Kachani, the outgoing Chair, also joins the Board. We owe
Soulaymane many thanks, for he has done a wonderful job and left the Section in excellent shape.
Sincerely,
Rob Shumsky
Section Chair
Membership Renewal
January or February is the time to renew your Section membership for 2008. Renewing is easy, although the procedure depends
upon your status with INFORMS. If you were a member of INFORMS in 2007 and have not renewed for 2008, you can do so at
http://renew.informs.org, choosing Section membership as one of the options.
If you have already renewed your INFORMS membership but have not yet joined the Section, or if you want to join the Section
without joining INFORMS, then print and submit the
Section membership application (PDF)
which is available via a link at the bottom of the Section web page.
Section members are encouraged to contact friends and colleagues who are interested in pricing and revenue management to become
members of the Section. In particular, academics are urged to ask students under their supervision and students within their
departments who are interested in pricing and revenue management to become members. Student members are encouraged to recommend
membership to fellow classmates. Our student membership fee is low compared to other INFORMS sections, and participation by all
is welcomed.
The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference in Montreal
The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Conference will take place June 18th through 20th on the University of
Montreal campus. Organized by co-chairs Patrice Marcotte and Gilles Savard, the conference promises to be bigger and better
than ever. The web site is www.cirrelt.ca/informs-rmp2008/.
Those interested in presenting at the conference should send a title and an extended abstract of their proposed talk by March 31,
2008, through the conference website. A limited number of presentations will be selected after a review of the submitted abstracts
by the conference scientific committee.
The program will follow the format of previous revenue management conferences in order to allow discussions during and after
the presentations and encourage active participation.
Note that students may apply for one of five $1000 grants. More information can be obtained by clicking on "student grants" in
the top left menu of the web site.
Prizes Awarded, and a Request for Information on a Recipient
At the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle this past November, the Section Prize was awarded to William L. Cooper (University of
Minnesota), Tito Homem-de-Mello (Northwestern University) and Anton J. Kleywegt (Georgia Institute of Technology) for
their paper, “Models of the Spiral-Down Effect in Revenue Management.” Their work was lauded for including an
elegant framework to analyze a significant problem in revenue management system, as well as for having a real impact on practice.
More information about the award and the paper can be found in the minutes from the Section meeting, now available at
http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/meeting-minutes.html.
The Historical Prize was awarded to Marvin Rothstein, formerly of the University of Connecticut, for his groundbreaking work on the
airline overbooking problem. The prize committee, however, could not locate any information about Dr. Rothstein. If you have any
information, please contact Garrett van Ryzin (gjv1@columbia.edu) so that we can present the
award directly to him.
The prize committee consisted of Garrett van Ryzin (Chair), Barry Smith, and Andy Boyd.
Proposals Solicited for the 2009 Summer Conference
The Section has sent out a request for proposals to host the INFORMS Revenue Management & Pricing Conference in 2009.
Traditionally, the conference has been held during late June or early July, on Thursday and Friday. For more information about
submitting a proposal, email robert.shumsky@dartmouth.edu. The deadline for
submitting a proposal is March 1, 2008.
Job and Internship Listings
Job and internship listings can be posted on the Section web page. This service is presently free of charge. To view listings,
see http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/jobs.html.
For information about placing a listing, contact Rob Shumsky at robert.shumsky@dartmouth.edu.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier organization for
quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact John Quillinan at
John.Quillinan@disney.com
June 18-20, 2008, Montreal
Conference website: www.cirrelt.ca/informs-rmp2008/
The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference will be held on the campus of the University of Montreal.
The event, which builds on the great success of the previous editions, is an essential forum for both practitioners and academics
who want to keep on top of the latest scientific developments in the field.
Those interested in presenting at the conference should send a title and a one-page extended abstract of their proposed talk by
March 30, 2008, through the conference website. A limited number of presentations will be selected after a review of the submitted
abstracts by the conference scientific committee. The program will follow the format of previous revenue management conferences in
order to allow discussions during and after the presentations and encourage an active participation.
Montreal is the second largest french-speaking city after Paris. What it lacks in outrageously expensive hotels and restaurants,
it more than makes for in little cafés, restaurants and quaint neighborhoods. End of June weather cannot be predicted with
certainty but is statistically nice and warm.
The conference, co-sponsored by the Revenue Management and Pricing Section of INFORMS, HEC-Montréal, École Polytechnique-Montréal,
GERAD and CIRRELT, will be held on the campus of the University of Montreal, located within walking distance of several French or
ethnic (Vietnamese, Indian, Chinese, Greek, vegetarian) restaurants, and is easily accessed from the downtown area by bus,
metro or car. Complimentary breakfasts lunches and coffee breaks will be available for the duration of the conference.
Please visit us at
www.cirrelt.ca/informs-rmp2008/
for more details. We look forward to your participation.
- Organizers: Patrice MARCOTTE (Université de Montréal) and Gilles SAVARD (Polytechnique Montréal)
- Information: RMP2008@CIRRELT.ca
- Scientific Committee: Christopher Anderson, Luce Brotcorne, Guillermo Gallego, Soulaymane Kachani, Yuri Levin, Costis Maglaras,
Jeff McGill, Jean-François Pagé, Georgia Perakis, Ioana Popescu, Mariane Riss, Garrett van Ryzin, Gustavo Vulcano
October 2007
In this issue:
- Message from the Chair
- Seattle INFORMS Meeting Boasts Over 140 Revenue Management and Pricing Presentations
- The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference Takes Shape
- Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Job and Internship Listings
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
With the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle just a few days away, I would like to remind those of you who are attending the
conference to join us for the Revenue Management and Pricing Section reception and business meeting, which will be held on
Sunday November 4th at 6:15 PM. The location of the business meeting will be available in the conference program booklet.
This meeting is a wonderful opportunity for us to meet around fine wine, beer and snacks, and discuss important issues related
to our community and the Section. I look forward to seeing each and every one of you there.
On behalf of the Section, I would like to thank our cluster chairs, Georgia Perakis and Bob Phillips, for organizing the
largest ever Revenue Management and Pricing cluster of any conference! With 35 sessions (12 on Sunday, 9 on Monday,
and 7 on each of Tuesday and Wednesday), the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Seattle will bring ever-increasing visibility to our
community, and will surely get us closer to our goal of upgrading the status of our section within INFORMS to a society.
In addition to this great news, I am happy to report that the planning of the 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and
Pricing Section Conference, which will be held in Montreal on June 18th through 20th, 2008, is almost complete.
The conference organizers, Patrice Marcotte and Gilles Savard, have secured an impressive set of keynote speakers, scientific
committee members, and sponsors from both industry and academia. The conference website is already up and running, and those
interested in presenting at the conference should send a title and a one page extended abstract of their proposed talk by
March 30, 2008, through the conference website.
I invite those of you who have presented papers at the 7th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference
in Barcelona to submit your paper by January 15, 2008, for publication in a special issue of the Journal of Revenue and
Pricing Management. As you may know, the Section is a proud sponsor of the journal, and as Chair of the Section, I will be
editing this special issue of the journal that is set to appear in October 2008. I ask for your help in submitting quality
papers to the journal, and in participating in the refereeing process.
I also ask you to please remember to renew your Section membership, and to invite your colleagues and students to join the
Section, which they can do by printing and submitting the membership application form available from the front page of the
Section’s website http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org.
Members of the Section receive our quarterly newsletter with the
latest information about conferences, prizes, and other activities. They also benefit from a 40 percent discount on the
subscription rate for the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management – a savings of over $70 – while joining the Section
costs $15 or less ($5 for students, $8 for INFORMS members, and $15 for non-INFORMS members).
As my term comes to an end, this is my last Message from the Chair. I would like to take this opportunity to express my
sincere thanks to Andy Boyd, Mark Ferguson, Ahmet Kuyumcu, Joern Meissner, John Quillinan, and Rob Shumsky for their
dedication and service to the Board of the Section. Andy has been a great mentor and I look forward to working with Rob as
he takes on the role of Chair of the Section. I would also like to thank Garrett van Ryzin (Prize Committee Chair),
Barry Smith, and Andy Boyd for their service on the Section Prize Committee. The Section prizes will be awarded at our
business meeting on Sunday, November 4th, in Seattle.
If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the Section Board.
Have a nice holiday season.
Best regards,
Soulaymane Kachani
Section Chair
Seattle INFORMS Meeting Boasts Over 140 Revenue Management and Pricing Presentations
Over 140 presentations on pricing and revenue management will be presented in sessions running the duration of the Seattle
INFORMS Meeting, November 4th through 7th. Many of the presentations are part of the track sponsored by the
Revenue Management and Pricing Section and held in conjunction with the invited track, entitled Revenue Management and
Pricing (https://informs_rmp), but there are also separate contributed tracks entitled Pricing and Revenue Management
(https://informs_prm) and Revenue/Yield Management (https://informs_rym). General information on the meeting can be
found at http://meetings.informs.org/Seattle07/.
The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference Takes Shape
The dates for the 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Conference are now set for June 18th through 20th on
the University of Montreal campus. Organized by co-chairs Patrice Marcotte and Gilles Savard, the conference promises to
be bigger and better than ever. A preliminary web site is available at
www.iro.umontreal.ca/~marcotte/INFORMS_RMP_2008/.
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management is published by Palgrave Macmillan, a global academic publisher and part
of the MacMillan group, the United Kingdom’s largest independent publisher. The journal carries timely, relevant articles
drawn from both industry applications and academic research. Members of the RM&P Section are entitled to significantly
reduced subscription rates. To learn more about the journal, visit
www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
Job and Internship Listings
Job and internship listings can be posted on the RM&P web page. This service is presently free of charge. To view listings,
see http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/jobs.html.
For information about placing a listing, contact Andy Boyd at aboyd@prospricing.com.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier organization
for quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact Soulaymane Kachani at
kachani@ieor.columbia.edu.
The INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Prize Committee wants your nominations for best publication! The deadline for
submitting nominations this year has been extended to September 15, 2007.
Once again, we've put together an impressive Committee of highly respected revenue management and pricing experts from both
academia and industry. For 2007, the Committee's members are:
- Andrew Boyd (PROS)
- William Cooper (University of Minnesota)
- Barry Smith (Sabre)
- Garrett van Ryzin, Chair (Columbia University)
To be eligible for the INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize, published work must meet the following
requirements:
- It must be in the form of a paper, a book, or a group of papers or books.
- It must be on the topic of pricing/revenue management.
- It must have been published in one of the preceding five years or, in the case of a group, at least one member of the group must have been published in one of those years.
- It must be written in the English language.
- It must have appeared in the open literature.
To be eligible for consideration, each book or paper must be nominated to the committee. Anyone may make nominations.
The Committee will use the following criteria in making judgments:
- The extent to which the contribution advances the state of the art of pricing and revenue management.
- The originality of the ideas or methods.
- The new areas of application it opens up.
- The degree to which existing theory or method is unified or simplified.
- The clarity and excellence of the exposition.
- The degree to which the contribution provides value for future applications, or enables improved practice.
A nomination consists of:
- A nominating letter specifying the work being nominated and explaining why it is deserving of the INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Prize. Nominating letters must include the titles of paper(s) or book(s), author(s), and the place and date of publication.
- Supporting letters, if desired. Supporting statements bearing on the worth of the publication in terms of the six criteria above will be very helpful, but are not required.
- Electronic files or six hard copies of the work.
Nominations should be sent to the chair of the committee:
Prof. Garrett J. van Ryzin
Graduate School of Business
Columbia University
412 Uris Hall
New York, NY 10027
212-854-4280
gjv1@columbia.edu
July 2007
In this issue:
- Message from the Chair
- Barcelona Conference a Huge Success
- 3rd Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference in Atlanta
- INFORMS Annual Meeting to be Held in Seattle, November 4-7
- Plans Underway for the 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference
- Last Chance to Make a Nomination for Section Office
- Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Job and Internship Listings
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
On behalf of the Revenue Management and Pricing Section, I would like to thank Professor Kalyan Talluri and the organizing
committee of the 7th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference for their hard work and great efforts.
This conference, which took place in Barcelona on June 28-29, was a great success. We hope to build on this success to
attract more European members to the Section.
As Chair of the Section, I will be editing a special issue of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management. This issue
will be based on the papers presented in Barcelona, and will appear in October 2008. The submission deadline is
January 15, 2008. In a few weeks, I will be sending a detailed announcement regarding this special issue. We count
on your help in submitting quality papers to the Journal, and in participating in the refereeing process. Also,
we hope that initiating and sustaining a tradition of publishing a special issue of the Journal tied to the Section’s
conference and edited by its chair will strengthen and further formalize the ties between the Section and the Journal.
We are pleased to announce that the next Section Conference will take place in Montreal in June 2008. The conference
co-chairs Professors Patrice Marcotte and Gilles Savard have set ambitious goals for this conference. They postponed
the decision of setting the dates of the conference until September when the Formula 1 committee determines the dates
of their annual race in Montreal, a testament to their pricing and revenue management skills.
To join the Revenue Management and Pricing Section, please print and submit the membership application form
available from the front page of the Section’s website http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/.
Members of the Section receive our quarterly newsletter with the latest information about conferences, prizes,
and other activities. They also benefit from a 40 percent discount on the subscription rate for the Journal of Revenue
and Pricing Management – a savings of over $70 – while joining the Section costs $15 or less ($5 for students,
$8 for INFORMS members, and $15 for non-INFORMS members).
If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the Section’s board.
Have a nice end of summer.
Best regards,
Soulaymane Kachani
Section Chair
Barcelona Conference a Huge Success
The 7th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference proved to be a huge success.
Held in Barcelona in late June, attendees included academicians and practitioners from around the world
and drew the top names in the field. The meeting was highlighted by keynote addresses from distinguished
speakers Bruno Matheu, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Network Management at Air France,
and Professor Xavier Vives of the IESE Business School at ICREA-UPF. Information on the presentations
can be found at www.econ.upf.edu/informs/,
and photos of the event at www.flickr.com/photos/informs_rm_bcn/.
3rd Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference in Atlanta
Georgia Tech and Revenue Analytics will host the 3rd Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization
Conference. This year’s conference, entitled Revenue Management and the Analytics Explosion, will take place
October 2-3 in Midtown Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.
The Revenue Management and Price Optimization conference provides a unique opportunity for business leaders,
researchers and service providers to exchange ideas about the latest developments in Revenue Management
business practice and technology. The carefully constructed agenda features three keynote addresses, panel discussions,
breakout sessions, and numerous networking opportunities, as well as a full day of educational workshops.
For more information, visit www.revenuemanagementconference.com.
INFORMS Annual Meeting to be Held in Seattle, November 4-7
The INFORMS Annual Meeting is just around the corner. Both invited and sponsored tracks of presentations on
pricing and revenue management are scheduled, with Section members Georgia Perakis and Bob Phillips coordinating
speaker activities. The general meeting will also host the Section’s annual business meeting, where Section members
have a chance to learn about what plans are underway and to make their voices heard.
Held in Seattle, the meeting promises stunning sea and mountain backdrops, a great street scene, and, of course,
coffee houses on every corner, in addition to the many opportunities to interact with pricing and revenue management
researchers and professionals.
Plans Underway for the 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference
The 8th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section conference will take place in Montreal, Canada.
Due to the success of the previous meetings and the growing number of submissions, the schedule will span
two-and-a-half days. Tentative dates, yet to be officially confirmed, are set for June 11-13, in between the
likely time of the Formula 1 Grand Prix (June 8) and Québec's national holiday (June 24).
The conference will be held at HEC-Montréal, whose recent building has all modern facilities, including
wireless access, a computer room for conference participants, a cafeteria in the middle of its large and
impressive atrium. The business school is located within walking distance of several French or ethnic (Vietnamese,
Indian, Chinese, Greek, vegetarian) restaurants, and is easily accessed from the downtown area by bus, metro or car.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
- Patrice Marcotte (Co-chair)
- Gilles Savard (Co-chair)
- Christopher Anderson (Cornell)
- Luce Brotcorne (Valenciennes)
- Guillermo Gallego (Columbia)
- Soulaymane Kachani (Columbia)
- Yuri Levin (Queen's)
- Costis Maglaras (Columbia)
- Jeff McGill (Queen's)
- Jean-François Pagé (Air Canada)
- Georgia Perakis (MIT)
- Ioana Popescu (INSEAD)
- Mariane Riss (SNCF)
- Garrett van Ryzin (Columbia)
- Gustavo Vulcano (NYU)
Last Chance to Make a Nomination for Section Office
Nominations for Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, and one open board position will close on Friday, August 10.
The Vice Chair/Chair Elect will serve three years, one as Vice Chair, one as Chair, and one as a board member.
The Secretary/Treasurer will serve a single year term and the board member will serve a term of two consecutive
years. All duties will commence at the 2007 INFORMS Annual Meeting, and the elected individuals must be members
of INFORMS and the Revenue Management and Pricing Section at that time.
To submit a nomination for yourself or someone else, please contact Andy Boyd at
aboyd@prospricing.com, or Robert Shumsky at
Robert.A.Shumsky@Dartmouth.edu.
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management is published by Palgrave Macmillan, a global academic publisher
and part of the MacMillan group, the United Kingdom’s largest independent publisher. The journal carries timely,
relevant articles drawn from both industry applications and academic research. Members of the RM&P Section are
entitled to significantly reduced subscription rates. To learn more about the journal, visit
www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
Job and Internship Listings
Job and internship listings can be posted on the RM&P web page. This service is presently free of charge.
To view listings, see http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/jobs.html.
For information about placing a listing, contact Andy Boyd at aboyd@prospricing.com.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the
premier organization for quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact Soulaymane
Kachani at kachani@ieor.columbia.edu.
April 2007
In this issue:
- Message from the Chair
- 7th Annual RM&P Conference Showcases Three Tracks Over Two Days
- 3rd Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference in Atlanta
- Call for Abstracts (INFORMS Annual Meeting)
- Call for Nominations
- Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Job and Internship Listings
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
We are excited that many of you will be attending the upcoming 7th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section
Conference in Barcelona June 28-29 at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The organizing committee, headed by Professor Kalyan
Talluri, has prepared an exciting scientific program with 63 talks from leading academicians and practitioners.
Dr. Xavier Vives, Professor of Economics and Financial Management at the IESE Business School, and Bruno Matheu,
Executive Vice President of Marketing and Network Management at Air France, will be the keynote speakers. Additionally,
conference sponsor Vueling.com is offering (almost) free airline tickets to a limited number of students. For more
information about the conference, please refer to www.econ.upf.edu/informs/.
I also would like to mention two other academic conferences that will have sizable revenue management and pricing clusters:
the Joint EUROPT-OMS Meeting 2007, July 4-7, in Prague, Czech Republic
(http://cio.umh.es/europt-oms/), and the
INFORMS Annual Meeting, November 4-7, in Seattle, Washington
(http://meetings.informs.org/Seattle07/).
The Section's Board has been working with the leadership of INFORMS, the leadership of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing
Management, and the management of Palgrave Macmillan in order to further formalize the ties between the Section and the Journal.
I am glad to share that we've made tremendous progress in this direction. We are hoping to continue to improve the quality
of the Journal and make it a premier outlet in our community for the dissemination of scholarly research and state-of-the-art
practice of pricing and revenue management. Your help in submitting quality papers to the Journal, your continued participation
in the refereeing process, and your efforts to increase subscriptions to the journal are much appreciated.
We are still working diligently to increase the membership of the Section. We are kindly requesting your help in convincing
your friends and colleagues who are interested in the area of pricing and revenue management to become members of the Section.
Academicians, please encourage students in your departments to join.
To join the Revenue Management and Pricing Section, print and submit the membership application form available from the front
page of the Section's website http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/.
Members of the Section receive our quarterly newsletter
with the latest information about conferences, prizes, and other activities. You will also benefit from a 40 percent discount
in the subscription rate for the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management - a savings of over $70 - while joining the Section
costs $15 or less ($5 for students, $8 for INFORMS members, and $15 for non-INFORMS members).
Finally, we intend to spearhead an effort to attract corporate sponsorship for the Section and we will be approaching the
industry members of the Section for help. We of course welcome any suggestions from you on how to optimally price various
levels of corporate sponsorship :-).
Please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the Section's board with questions, feedback or suggestions.
Have a nice summer.
Best regards,
Soulaymane Kachani
Section Chair
7th Annual RM&P Conference Showcases Three Tracks Over Two Days
In keeping with its distinguished history, the 7th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference, to be held in
Barcelona June 28-29, will offer a variety of presentations representing the forefront of theory and practice.
Topics include customer behavior and demand models, the effects of cooperation and competition, joint pricing and inventory
decisions, and many others. For more information about the conference, including registration, accommodations, and the
meeting agenda, see www.econ.upf.edu/informs/.
3rd Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference in Atlanta
Georgia Tech and Revenue Analytics will host the Third Annual Revenue Management and Price Optimization Conference. This
year's conference, entitled Revenue Management and the Analytics Explosion, will take place October 2-3 in Midtown Atlanta
at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center.
The Revenue Management and Price Optimization conference provides a unique opportunity for business leaders, researchers and service
providers to exchange ideas about the latest developments in Revenue Management business practice and technology.
The carefully constructed agenda features three keynote addresses, panel discussions, breakout sessions, and numerous networking
opportunities, as well as a full day of educational workshops.
For more information, visit www.revenuemanagementconference.com.
Call for Abstracts
There is still time to participate in the Revenue Management and Pricing Section cluster of sponsored presentations at the INFORMS
Annual Meeting this November in Seattle, but you need to hurry! Contact cluster organizer Georgia Perakis
(georgiap@mit.edu)
or Robert Phillips (robert.phillips@nomissolutions) for more information by May 11.
Call for Nominations
Nominations are now being sought for Vice Chair/Chair Elect and one open board position. The Vice Chair/Chair Elect will serve
three years, one as Vice Chair, one as Chair, and one as a board member, while the board member will serve a term of two
consecutive years. Duties will commence at the 2007 INFORMS Annual Meeting, and the elected individuals must be members of
INFORMS and the RM&P Section at that time. Nominations are being accepted now through August 1, 2006. To submit a nomination,
contact the committee chair, Andy Boyd, at aboyd@prospricing.com.
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management is published by Palgrave Macmillan, a global academic publisher and part of the
MacMillan group, the United Kingdom's largest independent publisher. The journal carries timely, relevant articles drawn from
both industry applications and academic research. Members of the RM&P Section are entitled to significantly reduced subscription
rates. To learn more about the journal, visit www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
Job and Internship Listings
Job and internship listings can be posted on the RM&P web page. This service is presently free of charge.
To view listings, see
http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/jobs.html.
For information about placing a listing, contact Andy Boyd at aboyd@prospricing.com.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier organization for
quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact Soulaymane Kachani at
kachani@ieor.columbia.edu.
January 2007
In this issue
- Message from the Chair
- 7th Annual RM&P Conference Travels to Barcelona
- PROS Revenue Management and Pricing Event
- Call for Nominations
- Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Job and Internship Listings
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
It is my pleasure to share with you that the state of the Revenue Management and Pricing Section is strong, and together,
we will make it stronger.
I would like to congratulate our newly elected officers Robert Shumsky, our new Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect, and John Quillinan,
our new Secretary/Treasurer. Rob and John will undoubtedly help the Section and its board build on the great momentum that
our outgoing Chair, Andy Boyd, created this past year.
I wish to emphasize the importance of increasing our membership. Over the past year we have appealed to you on several
occasions to subscribe or renew your membership to the Revenue Management and Pricing Section, and we hope you did so or will
do so soon. This year, we would like to request that you convince your friends and colleagues who are interested in this
area to become members of the Section. Please take some time to do it today or this week.
Practitioners and industry experts, in addition to your personal membership you can become a corporate sponsor of the
Section and/or advertise job and internship opportunities on the Section’s website. For more information, please do not
hesitate to contact Andy Boyd (aboyd@prosrm.com) or myself
(kachani@ieor.columbia.org).
Academics, please ask students under your supervision and students within your departments interested in pricing and
revenue management to become members of the Section. Student members, please recommend membership to your fellow classmates.
Our student membership is fairly low compared to other INFORMS sections, and your help is needed.
You will find the 2007 Section application form attached and on our website (membership cost is $8 for regular INFORMS members,
$5 for students and retirees, and $15 for non-INFORMS members). To become a member, it is necessary to include payment with
your application.
Below are some of the initiatives we are undertaking:
Journal
As you may know, the Section is a sponsor of the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management. We are continuing to work with the
leadership of the Journal to improve quality and increase readership. We are discussing ways of building stronger ties between
the editorial board and the board of the Section. We are also working at the level of the Subdivisions Council of INFORMS to
formalize our relationship with the Journal.
Annual conference
The annual RM&P Section conference is taking place in Barcelona on June 28-29. With an RM&P board member now on the organizing
committee, the Section’s board is now more intimately involved in the organization of the conference, and we hope that the
Section’s involvement will continue and grow with time.
RM&P clusters for upcoming conferences
We are proactively contacting organizers of future major national and international conferences (e.g., INFORMS, EURO, CORS,
IFORS) to help them identify organizers of the revenue management and pricing clusters. Georgia Perakis and Robert Phillips
will be co-organizing the cluster at the upcoming INFORMS annual meeting in Seattle on November 4-7. If you are interested in
organizing or co-organizing a cluster at an upcoming conference, please contact me.
Other
We are updating the Bylaws of the Section to reflect the many changes that occurred over the years and we will have them ready
for a vote before the fall. We are also actively seeking corporate sponsorship for the Section and internship opportunities for
student members.
As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Best regards,
Soulaymane Kachani
Section Chair
7th Annual RM&P Conference Travels to Barcelona
The 7th Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference, which has historically been held in either Boston at
MIT or New York at Columbia University, will be traveling to Barcelona June 28-29. Chaired by Kalyan Talluri and hosted at the
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the venue offers a delightful backdrop in addition to the many outstanding technical presentations.
The abstract submission deadline is March 30, 2007. For more information about the conference, including registration and
accommodations, see www.econ.upf.edu/informs/.
PROS Revenue Management and Pricing Event
PROS will be hosting its 13th annual revenue management conference and 2007 pricing excellence summit April 22-25 at the
Intercontinental Hotel in uptown Houston. In addition to an array of industry presenters, the event will showcase leading
academic speakers including Peter Belobaba, Robert Shumsky, and Garrett van Ryzin. Greatly reduced academic rates are available
for the event, which expects to bring together over 500 people. For more information, see
www.prospricing.com.
Call for Nominations
Nominations are now being sought for one open board position. Responsibilities will commence at the 2007 INFORMS Annual meeting
and extend for a two year period. Nominees must be members of INFORMS and the RM&P Section at the time they assume their duties.
Nominations are being accepted now through August 1, 2006. To submit a nomination, contact the committee chair, Andy Boyd, at
aboyd@prosrm.com.
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management is published by Palgrave Macmillan, a global academic publisher and part of the
MacMillan group, the United Kingdom’s largest independent publisher. The journal carries timely, relevant articles drawn from
both industry applications and academic research. Members of the RM&P Section are entitled to significantly reduced subscription
rates. To learn more about the journal, visit
www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
Job and Internship Listings
Job and internship listings can be posted on the RM&P web page. This service is presently free of charge. To view listings, see
Jobs.
For information about placing a listing, contact Andy Boyd at aboyd@prosrm.com.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
For a nominal fee, your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier
organization for quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact Andy Boyd at
aboyd@prosrm.com.
October 2006
In this issue
- Message from the Chair
- Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management Affiliation
- 150 Pricing and Revenue Management Presentations at Upcoming INFORMS Meeting
- POMS Introduces New Revenue Management Editorial Department
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
October is here, and with it the annual INFORMS membership renewal. If you’re already an INFORMS member you should receive
your notice shortly. If not, you can become a member by visiting the web site
www.informs.org.
Independent of your status in the parent organization INFORMS you can still be a member of the Revenue Management and
Pricing Section. For members, simply check the box on your membership renewal form -- $8 for regular INFORMS members,
$5 for students and retirees. For non-INFORMS members, or for INFORMS members who have already returned their renewal forms,
you can obtain a 2007 section application form at
www.informs.org/application/.
Simply fill it out and return it with your payment.
I want to emphasize how important your membership is. In addition to benefits including reduced rates for journal
subscriptions and regular information about ongoing pricing activities, your membership is a statement about your
commitment to the rapidly growing field of pricing and revenue management. The larger the Revenue Management and Pricing
Section’s membership, the greater the visibility of the field to the rest of the world -- an important objective of the
Section. For those who work in pricing and revenue management, a higher profile translates into greater professional
opportunities.
While INFORMS is committed to supporting the broader field of management science, not just pricing and revenue management,
if you’re not an INFORMS member I nonetheless encourage you to join. In doing so, you’ll become affiliated with the largest,
most prestigious organization of management scientists in the United States, with a total membership of close to 12,000.
And at $130, it’s one of the best professional deals going.
On other fronts, I am delighted to announce that the Revenue Management and Pricing Section is now a sponsor of the
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management. Published by Palgrave Macmillan, the journal carries timely, relevant articles
drawn from both industry applications and academic research. As part of the arrangement, the journal’s editor, Ian Yeoman,
will become a member of the Board of Directors of the Revenue Management and Pricing Section. In this way, the Section and
journal can work together to best meet the needs of the community we serve. It’s an exciting opportunity, and one which I
expect will yield many good things over the coming years.
Finally, if you will be attending the INFORMS Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, I would like to invite you to attend the
Revenue Management and Pricing Section business meeting. The business meeting will be held at 6:15 PM on Sunday,
November 5th, at a location that will be available at the conference. If you’ve never attended before, it’s a great
opportunity to hear what the Section is up to, provide your input on what the Section should be doing, and meet your peers
in an informal setting over wine, beer, and an assortment of snacks. I hope to see you there.
Andy Boyd
Section Chair
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management Affiliation
The INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section is now a sponsor of Palgrave Macmillan’s Journal of Revenue and
Pricing Management. As part of the sponsorship arrangement, members of INFORMS and the INFORMS Revenue Management and
Pricing Section are entitled to a subscription rate of $98 -- a 40% discount off of the regular price. To learn more about
the journal, including editorial policies for submitting papers, visit
www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/.
To subscribe, or for other information, contact Laura Ingle, Palgrave Macmillan Journals, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK Journals-info@palgrave.com.
150 Pricing and Revenue Management Presentations at Upcoming INFORMS Meeting
Approximately 150 invited and sponsored pricing and revenue management presentations are scheduled in two parallel tracks
at the INFORMS Annual Meeting to be held November 5th through 8th in Pittsburgh. For conference information,
see
http://www2.informs.org/Conf/Pittsburgh06/.
Thanks to Baris Ata, Northwestern University, and Luce Brotcorne,
University of Valenciennes, France, for their efforts in organizing the Revenue Management and Pricing track, and to
Georgia Perakis, MIT, for her efforts on the Dynamic Pricing and Forecasting track. For more information,
see
https://informs.revenue management and pricing and
https://informs.dynamic pricing and forecasting. For early risers,
there will be a Revenue Management and Pricing Tutorial in the tutorials track at 8:00 AM Sunday morning,
November 5th. See
https://informs.tutorial.
POMS Introduces New Revenue Management Editorial Department
POMS, the Production and Operations Management Society, has introduced a new editorial department in its flagship Journal
of Production and Operations Management. The senior editorial staff, most of whom are members of the Revenue Management
and Pricing Section, include Costis Maglaris, departmental editor, Columbia University; Rene Caldentey, New York University;
William Cooper, University of Minnesota; Guillermo Gallego, Columbia University; Pinar Keskinocak, Georgia Institute
of Technology; Jeff McGill, Queen's University; and Robert Phillips, Nomis Solutions. More information can be found at
www.poms.org/Journal.html.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
For a nominal fee, your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with
the premier organization for quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact Andy Boyd at
aboyd@prosrm.com.
July 2006
In this issue
- Message from the Chair
- Call for Officer Nominations
- Call for Prize Nominations
- Recent Meeting at Columbia University
- Upcoming INFORMS Annual Meeting
- Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
- Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
Message from the Chair
It's my pleasure to write to you about the many good things happening with the INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section.
We've been hard at work putting together a collection of resources and activities to better serve you – a professional
interested in the rapidly evolving field of pricing and revenue management.
Thanks to Hong Jin and Joern Meissner, we have a terrific new website containing information about conferences, prizes, jobs,
and our mission as an organization. If you have news, a job listing, or anything else you believe would be of interest to the
pricing and revenue management community, don't hesitate to contact Hong or Joern. Their email addresses along with the email
addresses of anyone mentioned in this newsletter can be found, not surprisingly, on the Section website:
http://revenue-mgt.section.informs.org/
We've also consolidated and updated our mailing list and it's now the most comprehensive directory of quantitative pricing and
revenue management professionals around. Our listserve moderator is Soulaymane Kachani.
I'd like to thank Warren Lieberman for his efforts at setting up and running the Section prize committee, Soulaymane Kachani
for handling nominations for next year's officers, and Georgia Perakis, Costis Maglaras, and the entire organizing committee
for their efforts putting together the Sixth Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference. I'd also like to
thank Warren for his recent service as Section Chair.
As we all know, pricing and revenue management is an exciting field that is changing the way businesses sell. Data and software
systems have now evolved to a point where companies are looking to use the information they've gathered to improve decision-making.
Supply chain management came first, but with supply chain initiatives reaching a mature state companies are seeking to improve
another aspect of their business – pricing and selling. The goal of the Revenue Management and Pricing Section is not just to
participate in the coming changes, but to support quantitative pricing practitioners in their efforts to improve pricing through
the use of data, mathematics, and computers. With so much seat-of-the-pants pricing, we have our work cut out for us...
Andy Boyd
Section Chair
Call for Officer Nominations
Nominations for Section officers for the two year period commencing in 2007 are now underway. Candidates are being sought for
- Vice Chair / Chair Elect
- Secretary Treasurer
Nominees must be members of INFORMS and the Revenue Management and Pricing Section at the time they assume their duties.
Nominations are being accepted now through August 11, 2006. To submit a nomination, contact the committee chair, Soulaymane Kachani.
2006 Nominating Committee:
Call for Prize Nominations
Nominations are sought for the 2006 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section prize for the best contribution to the science
of pricing and revenue management published in English. The prize includes a certificate and cash award, and is presented each year
at the INFORMS national meeting. The deadline for nominations is August 1, 2006, but may be extended at the prize committee's
discretion. To submit a nomination, contact the committee chair, Warren Lieberman.
2006 Nominating Committee:
- Warren Lieberman, Veritec Solutions, warren@veritecsolutions.com
- William Cooper, University of Minnesota
- Barry Smith, SABRE
- Garrett van Ryzin, Columbia University
Recent Meeting at Columbia University
The Sixth Annual INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Conference was once again a tremendous success. Held at Columbia
University in New York on June 5th and 6th, the agenda included 62 presentations by academicians and industry practitioners,
including plenary presentations by revenue management pioneers Jeff McGill of Queen's University and Barry Smith of SABRE.
The main conference dinner took place at the Terrace in the Sky, with outstanding cuisine and a view to match. Many thanks to the
sponsors, including the Columbia University Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), Dash Optimization,
IBM Research, the Jerome A. Chazen Institute of International Business, Manugistics, Oracle, PROS, and Zilliant. A list of
presentations and pictures of the event can be found at
http://www.demingcenter.com/html_files/roi/6th_annual_conf.htm.
Upcoming INFORMS Annual Meeting
Approximately 80 invited and sponsored talks on pricing and revenue management are scheduled for the INFORMS Annual Meeting to be
held November 5th through 8th in Pittsburgh. For preliminary details on the conference, see
http://www2.informs.org/Conf/Pittsburgh06/.
Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management
The Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, having started as a Henry Stuart Publication, was recently purchased by
Palgrave Macmillan. Palgrave Macmillan is a global academic publisher and part of the MacMillan group, the United Kingdom's
largest independent publisher. The journal carries timely, relevant articles drawn from both industry applications and
academic research. To learn more about the journal, visit
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/rpm/index.html.
Corporate Sponsorship Opportunities
For a nominal fee, your organization can help sponsor Section activities and have its name prominently associated with the premier
organization for quantitative pricing and revenue management. To learn more, contact Andy Boyd at
aboyd@prosrm.com.
Call for Papers
Guest editors
- Yuri Levin
School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada
- Jeff McGill
School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada
Brief description of the topic
In the twenty years since the successes of revenue management systems in airlines were first reported, applications have spread
steadily into such service businesses as passenger railways, cruise lines, hotel accommodation, and car rentals.
Other applications have been proposed in broadcast advertising, sport and entertainment event management, medical services,
real estate, freight transportation, and manufacturing. Details of implementation across these areas differ, but most share a
basic set of attributes: a finite supply of some inventory item, a fixed time span over which sales can occur, and stochastically
varying demand. Companies engaging in revenue management typically aim to control inventory levels, prices, or both, dynamically
over time in such a way as to maximize expected revenues.
We invite contributions to the theory and practice of Revenue Management (RM) and Dynamic Pricing from both academic and industrial
researchers. Topics of interest can include but are not limited to: Pricing, Network RM, Demand Learning and Estimation,
Market Response Models, Robust RM, Auctions, Game-Theoretic Models, Economics of RM, and Industrial Applications.
Submission guidelines and important dates
Submission Deadline for papers: October 1, 2006
We encourage authors to send submissions in an electronic format (preferably PDF) to:
ylevin@business.queensu.ca,
or jmcgill@business.queensu.ca.
To help with planning, we would appreciate a brief, early email notification if you intend to submit a paper.
